A Classification for Managing Software Engineering Knowledge

This taxonomy paper presents a novel way of knowledge engineering in the software engineering research community. Till now, research papers are organized digitally as documents, mostly in PDF files. Not much effort is spent on effective knowledge classification, retrieval, storage, and representation. In contrast to the current paper-based approach for knowledge documentation, we present a statement-based approach, where each statement is linked to arguments and data of its evidence as well as to related statements. We argue that in this way, knowledge will be easier to retrieve, compare, and evaluate in contrast to current paper-based knowledge engineering in scientific search engines and digital libraries. Therefore, we present as a first step a novel multi-dimensional classification for statements in software engineering research. Statements are classified according to their research object, their kind (e.g., relevance), and their underlying evidence. This classification is validated and extended with a first systematic literature review. Additionally, we provide an example for illustration purpose.